Sound quality perfectly acceptable for a '74 audience capture. Good work Bill!

The Eyes->China; the WRS; the Lay Me Down.

There really are no better ways to experience these songs than this right here. Maybe Dane Country '73 soundboard, with the Dark Star leading into into the Eyes->China. And the 9-20-70 and '84 Palais de Seine version will always be in competition for quintessential TLMD ... but so too will this version. It actually happened. You can here the people in real time reacting (or just sitting there with their heads exploding) thanks to this phenomenal recording.

Some criticize the wall of sound for the "thin-ness" of the vocals. That may be true for the sound going into the boards but here you discover a mix that sounds like some 50s AM radio broadcast, like the kind Bear heard when he was a kid. Go figure.

Solid show, def better sounding auds from this time but this is a pretty damn good audience recording for 74. Fact that its also Dave's Picks 2 and still available should make anyone Grateful

As far as the show itself: This show is mammoth even by 1974 standards. Look at the setlist, all THREE sets, and 1974? Do you really need a review to check it out? As for the sound quality on this audience: What I'd like to know is how can so many people be complaining about the sound quality? My original cassette tape is a SBD that contained this particular audience source for some of the songs. After getting the complete SBD years later in the digital age I have to say I now prefer the audience. The cuts are painful but listen to the mournful tone of Jerry's guitar in the solo in To Lay Me Down. Soundboards don't capture that. Billy's drums, cymbals, dynamics of the band, it's all there in this.

I'm not sure how I wound up checking the reviews for this source. Of course this is a stunningly great show...and, if this were the one and only recording of it that circulated, it would definitely be worth the assault on your ears from time to time just to hear the exceptional playing within. However, not only is there a vastly superior AUD available, if you just don't get down with SBDs, its cool, but don't kill your ears with this source...The original MSR(beautifully full bodied SBD for 74) and, lucky us, a Charlie Miller remaster, fixing the existing errors on the MSR, but taking on a 15-20 second cut during the Scarlet opener-irrelevant. CM also manages the near impossible, especially when we are talking clean and crisp WOS era SBD remasters, he actually manages to give us a easily noticeable upgrade. Anyway, would normally give a show as great as this, with a terrible source 2 maybe 3 stars, accounting for the playing still existing on the tape. However, in order to help eliminate the impact of the, shockingly multiple, 4 & 5 star reviews below. This is getting 1 star...and the actual recording barely deserves that. Fwiw, I'm an AUD lover. I'm not spoiled kiddy who can't appreciate that what maybe a C- quality AUD to us today, was for decades often a solid A- in many a collection...I know the difference between an excellent AUD, a very good, average, very bad, and terrible AUD. This is a terrible AUD. The other AUD source for this show is barely 1/2 way btw very bad and average. I'd strongly suggest getting the CM upgrade here...AND SOON! Sometime during February 2012 Dave Lemieux is going to release a remastered version of 7/31/74. It has been announced. The 2 AUDs may still be around for streaming/Dling after the release, but the MSR and CM upgrade most certainly will not.

...well, maybe I mind the recording a little bit! I can't give it a five. Nevertheless, it's one of the best shows I've heard, and considering that the taper was losing his mind, the sound quality is surprisingly high. I feel like I'm there. Too bad about the cuts and so forth, but it's good enough to listen to in the car...at least until we can download the SBDs again.

As for the first few tunes going missing, The Grateful Dead Listening Guide says the recorder dosed up on shrooms and couldn't get it together for the space of the first three songs. Whether that's true or not we may never know, but it sure is a good, believable story! This is without a doubt my favorite audience recording, scary sneezes not withstanding. At the end of MI Uptown, immediately after Weir has sung the refrain "Gonna sit right here until I die", THREE times, this poor stoned head says in this crushingly funny, hazy voice, "Gonna sit right down until I die." It cracks me up and gives me that warm-all-over feeling whenever I hear it. Again, according to the GDLG, the rustling noise is wind, and you can hear trucks passing by on the highway - they sound like airplanes. I only hope the guy with the sneezes has gotten along OK these past 35 years without his brains - he HAD to have blown them all over the place that day - truly sudden and frightening. :-)

Hey Huffman, give us early tapers a break! First of all, field editing was almost a necessity, especially at a show that could reach 5 hours e.t. The Energizer bunny hadn't come around yet, and 4 solid hours is the best you could expect from those old Ray-O-Vac or Toshiba batteries. When they got weak, any movement of the deck would create a speed fluctuation, there's one late in this recording. Also, those Sony 152's were bulky enough to sneak in, few tapers wanted to try to conceal an extra 6 C or D cells {I forget which one it used}. We also conserved tape, those 120's were two bucks apiece back then, so three of them was equal to a couple hours pay in those days. Thank God for the Jerry Moore's of the world that tried to get as much of a complete show as possible. Yes, this guy had a couple of bad cuts, maybe he was a newbie. This is still a very good aud. for it's day, I'm sure he was proud of his efforts at the time. Also, one reviewer mentioned wind noise on this recording, I actually think it's rubbing from whatever fabric he used when he needed to conceal the mikes. That's why there's muffled spots, he must of had them covered for WRS, for example. The chatter in China Doll is quite minimal, I tune it out, just like I do at the shows. As for the missing songs, I wonder if this show started early and caught people by surprise,(rain threat?} even the sbd copy is clipped.

Love I know you rider and mind left body, obviously :). Good show overall, sound quality pretty good as well. Thanks for the recording!

I have to give it a three when the set is not complete. The set starts with Scarlet, Me & My Unlcle, B E Women, BIDTL, Half step >

I've got the missing scarlet, Uncle, Brown Eyed and Beat it, if anyone is interested. Hit me at wolfmansbrotherwilson@gmail.com for more info.

D

Overall this was one of those classic 1974 concerts that had jerry, bob and phil shine. I love the mind left body jam and the opening mississippi half opening. by the way does anyone have any suggestions of the best china cat~I know you rider jam?
If so email me at deadhead377@yahoo.com

Pretty good show , deffinately underrated , I have found a good soundboard of this show on GDlive , they haven't pulled their boards yet. So
I'm giving the show a five for the content and the quality of the board I got off GDlive .

Idiots babbling during China Doll and indeed any quiet part, frighteningly obstrusive sneezes, horrendously amateur tape editing and the mysteriously missing first few songs all add up to one sorry download. Thankfully discs are dirt cheap because they're going directly into the trash. Guess I learned not to blindly trust the rating system.

This show, along with 7/19/74 are my favorites of the summer 74 era, which provides STRONG competition. The Truckin jam is definitive of what they were doing then. This is one of those shows where if I were to be stranded on an island with only 20 shows, this one would be in there.

I love this show, always have. Haven't listened to this entire show copy, but find yourself a good copy of this one.